2016

Our Story

Ben and I met in 1996, began dating in 1999 and married in 2001. Now 20 years and 2 children later, we have returned to where our life together began. Ben works for the Federal Reserve and I have the privilege of staying home with our two precious boys.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Daddy took a day off work and planned a visit to take the boys to see a childhood friend of his that is a firefighter in Ben's hometown of Gainesville. The boys were so excited and were counting down until the big day arrived when they got to go see Fireman Jake and the fire trucks at the fire station! Mommy went off to the spa and Daddy, Ethan, and Caden had a Boys Only day. Mommy didn't mind a bit and I was just as excited as they were!

Jake was super amazing and gave them the full tour of the station! He also made sure that the boys had hats, badges, and bags filled with coloring books and crayons, badges to give their friends, tattoos, stickers, pencils, and rubber duckies! So, so sweet of him!
Here are a few highlights of their trip...

Jake, Ben, Ethan, and Caden

The boys got to "drive" several different rescue vehicles

Love Caden's look of concentration in this!

They tested out the equipment inside the trucks...helmets
walkie-talkies...
flashlights...
and headphones
Jake even let Ethan and Caden experiment with the equipment on the outside of the trucks.

Once they got inside the station, Jake told Ben that they don't have poles in newer firehouses and that they have slides instead for the firefighters to slide down when the bell rings. Caden slid down but Ethan was a little intimidated by the tall slide.

After checking out the slide, they headed to the kitchen and on to the firefighters' sleeping quarters. This is where Fireman Jake sleeps. Ben said it felt a little claustrophobic up there.

What a memory making day for the boys!

Jake, thank you so very much for giving the boys an unforgettable experience!

Friday, February 21, 2014

Well, we just thought that we had snow a couple of weeks ago. Round 2 was easily twice as much as round 1 and we had so much fun!

After getting over the shock of seeing so much snow in Georgia we got started building our snowman. Daddy knew exactly what to do!

And it turned out pretty awesome! Had we gotten a little more patience from the 2 year old and 4 year old, we may have been able to smooth him out a bit but we had fun any way.

Ms. Lauren brought her sled over and took Ethan and Caden for a ride around the backyard,

then they made snow angels,

and had a little time on the swingset...

Then we headed down to the end of the street to test out the sled on the hill

Lauren and Caden

Daddy and Ethan

Lauren and Ethan

We were snowed in for 4 days so we had lots of inside time. Luckily, I had just gone to the store the day before snow hit so we were stocked up and good to go. We made muffins, banana bread, cookies, did Valentine's activities, colored, watched lots of Mighty Machines episodes on Netflix, played cars, and did lots of puzzles.

Ethan's line of cars leaving the Batcave...he and Caden are all about making lines right now

Jake floor puzzle

A few of the puzzles Daddy and Ethan worked on together

We made the most of our snow days and had some great family fun. Can you believe they are already talking about another chance of snow this week??? CRAZY weather this year!

Monday, February 10, 2014

This weekend we took the boys to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum, and Bailey Circus. We love this circus but skipped last year so I was very excited to take the boys this year. While Ethan has been two other times, this was Caden's very first time! And for a two and a half hour show, Caden did very well. He was in awe the first hour, then either stood up or sat in my lap the rest of the time.

Daddy and Ethan

Pre-show mesmerization...

I love this face...he's so focused

Ethan couldn't take his eyes off of any of the acts

And Daddy got them a special souvenir during intermission. Both boys took them to bed with them when they got home that night :-)

So excited!

While the whole show is amazing, this was my favorite act. The picture is awful but these guys are playing basketball and doing tricks while riding unicycles! It was fascinating to watch them in action!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Our Georgia Winter Wonderland
Crazy Atlanta weather resulted in 2 snow days last week. This was Caden's first real snow experience and he wasn't too sure of what to think about it at first but he warmed up by the 2nd day. Ethan, on the other hand, cried buckets of tears each time we had to go back inside. We thankfully have an adventurous neighborhood so there were sleds flying all over the place and the boys had a blast each time they went out...Ethan especially!

Day 1
The sleds were the first thing Ethan ran for when we met our neighbor friends next door!

Caden, on the other hand was perfectly happy to watch the snow fall from his position inside the garage. You can barely make out his little red toboggan next to my car.

He finally ventured out of the garage and met up with us next door at the Melanson's.

But he quickly returned to the garage to grab his favorite motorcycle

Then Ethan decided to turn it into a rolling sled :-)

We even attempted to turn the boogie board into a sled

Day 2

We met several of our friends down at the Pennebaker's and sledded through their backyard. They created an obstacle course complete with moguls to sled through. Both boys LOVED it and Caden even wanted to go first!

Love this little face!

Then he decided to try out the "bunny slope" with Lauren.

Ethan's turn!

Ethan was making the most of his bucket by filling it and tossing snow at everyone...brrrr!

Cheese!

Then we headed to the front yard for some more playtime with little friends

And Ashley found some huge icicles!

We ended the day with snow angels! What an amazing experience for these 2 little guys!

I have to admit that I was ready for it to melt but seeing the fun the boys had while it was here was priceless! I'm so thankful that they have friends that they get to participate in these memory making moments with! Hopefully, next time the city will be better prepared for it, though, it was definitely a mess on the roads.